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Was there a circus in town?karen millen dresses Or an audition for a loopy reality TV show? You might even, had you walked down Endell Street in Covent Garden in the past few days,karen millen outlet UK have assumed this was a day-release from an institution for the irredeemably extrovert.
For otherwise how to categorise a crowd that included Asian chaps wearing a blond wig and ankle socks,Trendy Karen Millen Coats or transparent fluorescent pink trousers with matching padded jacket? And what about the locals in faux-fur sweatshirts, PVC jackets, blankets, habits or seasonally inappropriate shorts?Karen Millen Coats One young woman even sported a stuffed duck.
As the scurrying street photographers demonstrated,Karen Millen Skirt Outlet these Covent Garden lurkers were in fact a fashion crowd. And they were clustered outside the headquarters of London Collections: Men, Britain's recently expanded twice-yearly showcase for the nation's best designers of masculine clothes. All fashion weeks now attract an attention-seeking, narcissist fringe and this was ours. "I think that these days people-watching is even better at the menswear than at the womenswear," said Amber Morales,Karen Millen Skirts Outlet fashion editor of the Daily Mirror.
And as Alex Bilmes,karen millen UK sale the editor of Esquire magazine observed, more in sorrow than anger: "You do still get the wacky types. They tend to be students or bloggers. And they're not in here, are they?"
"Here" was 10 Downing Street on Monday evening,black Karen Millen dress at David Cameron's reception to mark the beginning of the event. Bilmes was almost entirely right. That Japanese wig-wearer had got in - he was a rather important visiting GQ magazine fashion editor (see panel), but most of the Prime Minister's guests,Karen Millen dresses outlet including designers Jeremy Hackett, Tom Ford, Jonathan Saunders, Lou Dalton, Tommy Hilfiger and Patrick Grant, were much more conventionally attired. There was the odd fashion flourish, yes - Harrods chief merchant Marigay McKee was particularly taken by one sober-suited man's blistering orange brogues - but this was a crowd bent on matters more pressing than controversially tight trousers: "They're dressed for business,"Karen Millen dress discount said Bilmes.
Men's clothes and sundry accoutrements represent an even half of the multi-billion-pound global market in luxury fashion goods,
Karen Millen Outlet UK a market that, according to the British Fashion Council, already generates £21 billion for the country annually.
And, as David Cameron announced after gamely outing his underwear-maker (M&S) and confessing to his multiple fashion failings, Britain is strongly placed to increase its share. He said: "With the growth of new economies - Indonesia, Malaysia, China, India, Brazil - comes the creation of an absolutely vast global middle class. They are going to want to buy all sorts of things… buy great brands, buy great fashion, buy great creativity. And I think that is what we have here in the UK. We have it in music,Karen Millen White Dress we have it in film, we have it in television. But perhaps more than anything else we have it in fashion. So I see this as a huge opportunity for the UK."
The PM is right.Karen Millen Black Dress Britons know all too well how clumsily our fellow countrymen - even our prime ministers - so often dress, but the wider world believes differently. The suit is a British invention, le style Anglais was the Big Bang that bred masculine clothing tastes across the developed world, and the mythical image of an immaculate Englishman - part Savile Row-resplendent David Niven, part bowler-hatted City gent - is as central to the stereotype of this nation as budgie-smuggler swimming trunks, bushfires and beer are to that of Australia.
British designers who trade on that reputation,Karen Millen UK shop such as Paul Smith, have long sold more in Japan than at home, and now the rest of Asia's stylish men are catching the Brit-wear bug. At this week's shows, designer after designer riffed on classic British tailoring - notably Hackett (in the crypt of St Paul's Cathedral), Mr Start,karen millen outlet store Orlebar Brown and Lou Dalton. Alexander McQueen, Dunhill, Rake, and Hardy Amies (a brand now tilted almost exclusively at Asia) were expected to follow suit (sorry). And while, yes, there were Zoolander-worthy moments of catwalk madness, including up-and-comer Craig Green's plank-faced staging at the MAN show (pictured above left) and a dutiful nod to socks and sandals - for next winter - at Topman Design, these were looks tilted firmly at that duck-adorned fringe.
It might be only the second staging of this event but London Collections:Karen Millen collection Men is attracting foreign - or foreign-owned - brands keen to ride our reputation. Examples include Bally (Swiss, but with a design and management team based in London), which recreated Sir Edmund Hillary's base camp in Bedford Square to show off its Alpine heritage. The American Tommy Hilfiger - who has long riffed on English countrywear - threw a party and Tom Ford (American,Karen Millen solid color long based in London) is due to hold his first men's presentation today.
Belstaff,Karen Millen Solid Color Dresses the Stoke-on-Trent-founded maker of biker jackets that is part of the same group as Bally and is designed and based in New York, held an event to mark its new Goodwood Sports & Racing range. A partnership with the Goodwood Estate's master, Lord March - whose family archive has inspired many of the garments in the collection - was explained by Belstaff's artistic director Martin Cooper thus: "In essence British motor sports were born on the estate - and Belstaff was there,Karen Millen Outlet too. So for us this is a dream come true to partner with Lord March."
We've pictured a few of the gentlemen whose dash caught Team Telegraph's eye at the shows.Karen Millen Skirts Their kit - that GQ man's aside - might not be revolutionary, but it will be menswear's hardy perennials who will revitalise a sliver of British manufacturing. Introducing the Prime Minister,karen millen coat Dylan Jones,Karen Millen dresses sale London Collection's chairman, and editor of British GQ , said: "We can now see that London is the most important fashion capital in the world,karen millen outlet and that it is the future, and the centre, of menswear." Many in Milan, Florence, Paris and New York would disagree with Jones's analysis,Karen Millen coats outlet but so what?